Visible and Divisible America: In Conversation with the 2019–2020 KU Common Book

Exhibition

Exhibition Overview

Visible and Divisible America: In Conversation with the 2019–2020 KU Common Book
Visible and Divisible America: In Conversation with the 2019–2020 KU Common Book
Kate Meyer, curator
Gallery 408, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

The KU Common Book program represents a campus-wide initiative to engage first-year students in a shared reading and learning experience. The choice for the 2019–2020 academic year is Tales of Two Americas Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation—edited by John Freeman—is an anthology of poetry, prose, and essays. Tales of Two Americas features writers such as Kiese Laymon, Sarah Smarsh, Natalie Diaz, Roxane Gay, and Julia Alvarez who explore the realities and inequalities of America today, in particular, the United States from 2016 onward. The exhibition Visible and Divisible America reflects the writings in the book and their themes, including the costs and value of education, notions of socioeconomic and racial inequality, home and homelessness, safety and insecurity, change and gentrification, and work and labor. In the editor’s foreword, Freeman urges readers to “watch as these writers demolish the myth [of the American Dream] and replace it with the reality of what it feels like to try to keep a foothold in America today.” Similarly, visitors of this exhibition will find evidence of American realities that are visible, invisible, and perhaps, divisible.

Exhibition images

Works of art

Larry Schwarm
1976
Elliott Erwitt
1963
Jim Goldberg
1979
Aaron Siskind
1953
Norman Strike
1989
James Dean Pruner
1984
Alison Saar, Vinalhaven Press
1993
Gordon H. Coster
circa 1944
Gordon H. Coster
circa 1940s
Graciela Iturbide
1986
Jenny Holzer
circa 1984
Jeff Brouws
2005
Koo Kyung Sook
2007
Luis Alfonso Jimenez, Lawrence Lithography Workshop
2008
Linda Lighton
2003
Christa Dalien
2012
Ganzeer, Booklyn, Inc., Wasp Print
2015
Ganzeer, Booklyn, Inc., Wasp Print
2015
Diego Romero, Landfall Press
2011
Michael Menchaca, Overpass Projects
2016
Michael Menchaca, Overpass Projects
2017
Tom Kiefer
2013
John Langdon
2012
Bullet Space, Day Gleeson, Dennis Thomas
1990–1991
Bullet Space, David Wojnarowicz
1990–1991
Bullet Space, Will Sales
1990–1991

Events

September 15, 2019
Talk
2:00–3:00PM
Spencer Museum of Art, Kemper Family Foundations Balcony, 408
September 29, 2019
Talk
2:00–3:00PM
Spencer Museum of Art, Kemper Family Foundations Balcony, 408